Failed attack may slam door on detainees

Wednesday

Dec 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMDec 30, 2009 at 3:53 PM

WASHINGTON -- Yemen's emergence as a center for al-Qaida activity has added another complication to the Obama administration's plan to close the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Yemenis make up the largest bloc of the remaining detainees.

WASHINGTON -- Yemen's emergence as a center for al-Qaida activity has added another complication to the Obama administration's plan to close the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Yemenis make up the largest bloc of the remaining detainees.

This month, six Yemenis were sent home from Guantanamo, and their attorneys expected that 35 or 40 more could be released soon. But now that an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen has claimed to be behind the attempted bombing of a trans-Atlantic airline flight bound for Detroit on Christmas, the attorneys fear that the administration will block further releases.

"I feel like my two clients who left in mid-December have gotten the last train out," said Washington lawyer David Remes, who has represented a large group of the Yemenis.

"When I was there (at Guantanamo) a few weeks ago, we were encouraged that another group would be going home soon."

Yesterday, Republican lawmakers and former Bush administration officials warned the White House against releasing more Yemenis.

"I implore you again to immediately halt these releases ... of additional detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Yemen and other dangerously unstable countries," Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama.

"Yemen is emerging as a well-organized terror hub in a struggling state, reminiscent of Afghanistan before 9/11," said Stewart Baker, a former top official of the Homeland Security Department under former President George W. Bush.

"We don't want to send nearly 100 people back there only to discover them getting on trans-Atlantic flights with fake documents."

About 200 prisoners remain at Guantanamo, including 88 natives of Yemen. In earlier years, the largest number of detainees had come from Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, but most of them were released during the Bush administration. Few Yemenis were released.

"(The Yemen government) had no capacity to keep these guys. You would be returning them to a lawless country," said Charles "Cully" Stimson, a former Defense Department lawyer.

This year, the Obama administration has conducted a case-by-case review of the Guantanamo detainees and decided that a handful of Yemenis could be safely released.

A White House official stressed the need to close Guantanamo but denied that more of the Yemenis were due to be released.

"Guantanamo has been used by al-Qaida as a rallying cry and a recruiting tool. As our military leaders have recognized, closing the detention facility at Guantanamo is a national security imperative," the official said. "We have worked cooperatively with the government of Yemen to ensure that all appropriate security measures are taken when detainees are transferred."

The administration would like to transfer some of the Yemeni detainees to Saudi Arabia, but the Yemenis have balked.

"We want them back," a senior Yemeni official said. "We always thought Yemen is the best place for them. We don't want them anywhere else."

It is unclear what will happen next. This month, the administration announced plans to transfer some or all of the remaining Guantanamo detainees to a prison in Thomson, Ill. But Congress has barred the spending of any money to bring the detainees into the United States, except for prosecution.

When Congress returns in the new year, the administration is expected to request legislation that would permit the transfer.

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